Wristwatch with a touch screen and method for displaying on a touch-screen watch

Abstract

Wristwatch (1) comprising: a digital matrix display (4); a two-dimensional sheet of touch-sensitive glass (3) provided with a plurality of electrodes (10, 11, 12) for detecting the movements of at least one finger along two different directions; a processing circuit laid out so as to interpret the signals from said electrodes and to scroll cards (23, 220-225, 210-213) on said display (4) in order to lastingly replace the initially displayed card (23) with another card; wherein the scrolling direction depends on the direction of said movement.

Description

[0001]The present application is a continuation of international patent application PCT / EP2011 / 000893 filed 30 Jun. 2010, the contents of which are incorporated herewith by reference. It claims priority of Swiss patent application CH2009 / 1036, filed 3 Jul. 2009, the contents of which are incorporated herewith by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention concerns a wristwatch, in particular an electronic wristwatch having a high-resolution display screen and a haptic surface.STATE OF THE ART[0003]Usual watches with a numeric display have several segments of liquid crystals controlled selectively in order to display the digits or symbols corresponding for example to the current time. The number of symbols that can be displayed is limited by the configuration of the segments.[0004]Wristwatches with a matrix display, i.e. a display formed of a matrix of pixels, are also known. These displays are more flexible than the segment displays and enable any symbols or images to be di...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0036]Thus, navigating in the watch's graphical interface is achieved by having virtually juxtaposed cards scroll past, so as to replace the entire image of one card by another image corresponding for example to a card and for displaying another function. It is thus possible to avoid the disadvantages of conventional graphical interfaces in which the launching of programs or functions is achieved by selecting a minuscule icon of the program on the screen background. Here, the icons are replaced by cards that generally occupy the entire screen and that display the useful information.

[0038]The invention is also based on the observation that the number of different movements the users are able and willing to learn in order to operate the watch is limited. To this effect, the watch's software is advantageously controlled mainly or even exclusively with the aid of horizontal or vertical movements of the finger on the glass. Most of the watch's functions, or even all its functions, can thus be accessed with these two very simple commands.

[0039]The tactile glass enables the movements of the finger in a horizontal or vertical direction to be detected in a reliable manner without the user having to go over specific electrodes to enter a given command.

[0041]The wristwatch also has the advantage that it is very easy to switch from one card to another by simple horizontal or vertical movements of the finger on the glass in order to cause juxtaposed cards to scroll past.

[0043]The present invention also concerns the organization of the cards and the method used for the card scrolling so as to render the operation as quick and intuitive as possible.

Problems solved by technology

As the haptic zones are generally transparent, it is necessary to indicate their position on the dial or on the bezel; the number of haptic zones is thus necessarily limited by the space required for these indications.

This watch suffers from the same disadvantages and enables at most twelve different commands to be entered.

The haptic zones have the shape of the display surfaces, which constitutes a serious technological limitation.

The size of the icons that can be displayed on a watch screen is necessarily very limited, which causes a problem of ergonomics in particular for people suffering from reduced visual acuity.

The navigation between the different programs or documents in the graphical interface of a wristwatch raises very specific problems that are different than those that arise with a screen that is even slightly larger.

Watches are usually considered too small to allow or require a movement of the finger to be detected.

Furthermore, there is a bias in the watch-making industry against sophisticated touch screens, whose necessary energy consumption, refresh time or computer power are dreaded.

Furthermore, watch screens are generally considered too small to allow functions to be selected by means of icons or other widgets that are frequently found in graphic user interfaces of computers or mobile telephones.

Because of these biases, and because the usefulness of detecting a movement on a watch glass with a reduced surface is not obvious, watches with digital displays are not provided with two-dimensional haptic surfaces nor with software enabling a movement of the finger along two directions to be detected.

There is also a bias in the state of the art against using multi-touch screens in wristwatches, whose glass is generally considered too small to allow the contact, or even more the simultaneous movement, of several fingers.

The proposed solution only makes it possible to navigate in a specific menu prepared to this effect; data entry requires tedious training.

However, the arrangement of non-contiguous electrodes suggested in this document makes the command inputting less intuitive; this is not a two-dimensional haptic surface.

Images